Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to lawnmowers and, particularly, to a lawnmower with a gear-reduced engine, larger blade and easy handling configuration.
Description of Related Art
The home hand lawnmower is typically an engine powered lawnmower consisting of a 2 or 4 stroke engine, having a cutting blade in a housing enclosure driven by the engine crank shaft. For safety reasons, in the home lawn cutting market, legislation in the US limits the tip speed of the cutting blade to a maximum of 19,000 feet/minute, which in turn limits the engine crank shaft speed to 3,400 rpm with the largest available legal blade being 21 inches at this speed. Some larger blades are available but utilize much lower speeds. The horsepower on a lawnmower is a direct function of the rpm of the crankshaft so that power obtainable from a given motor with a 21 inch blade is limited, no matter how powerful the engine is, and the 21 inch lawnmower blade has been the largest available cutting blade on home lawnmowers for decades.
A problem with home lawnmowers is the fact that the ability to maneuver the lawnmower by hand is a function of the weight of the lawnmower, as well as the enclosure, motor, and blade. Typically, the motor is balanced dead center, with the shaft in the middle of the housing. For a typical 21 inch blade, this is well-balanced and weighted for the average user. However, larger commercial lawnmowers with higher horsepower motors and larger blades are proportionally heavier and this makes it difficult for many smaller home owners to handle anything larger than the motors with a 21 inch blade. Push commercial lawnmowers, such as, for example, the Esmark Metro 26 inch blade push mower, have very tall and heavy engines, and are difficult to maneuver. In addition, they are costly compared to home lawnmowers. Since mowers like the Esmark Metro 26 are all that has been available for decades, the weight has not been a problem with commercially available home lawnmowers.
The fact is, the larger a blade is, the quicker one can finish cutting a lawn, since the cutting path is larger with the larger blade. So, while there is every reason to have a larger cutting blade, to date no one has solved the problem of a larger cutting blade where the lawnmower is as easy to handle by hand as a smaller blade, yet still meets U.S. Federal regulations regarding blade tip speed, and is cost effective to produce. There has been a long standing need for a way to manufacture a lawnmower with a blade larger than 21 inches that can easily be handled and inexpensive.